How many times have you passed the Belize Sign Monument on Seashore Promenade and saw a tourist or a family taking pictures? Since the sign was erected, it has become the perfect place for photo ops. But lately, its paint job has been looking lackluster, and after the hurricane, well, it needed some work.
So this past weekend, the sign's donor, Estevan Perera gathered some members of the community - including our news team - to add some color back to "Belize." Courtney Menzies was there and has this story.
Like most of Belize City, the iconic, multi-colored "Belize" sign took a beating during Hurricane Lisa. The water bordering Seashore Promenade covered the park, the waves lashing against the bottom of the sign.
Post-hurricane, the sign survived, but its paint job needed a little TLC.
The sign's donor, Estevan Perera, decided it was time to rejuvenate one of the city's popular tourist attractions. This past Saturday, he and some members of the community, including some eager kids, came out with their paintbrushes to brighten up the sign, and the park.
Estevan Perera, Donor, Belize Sign
"Every year we try to get the community together and we try to invite a few friends and people in the community to assist in painting it over. Every year we have thousands, in fact, hundreds of thousands of tourists that come to Belize and we want to ensure that we keep the Belize sign at a certain quality so the people could appreciate it."
"Usually we do it in January but in this because of the weather and the effect that it had we decided to try and bring it up early."
"We had a few of the children from BES come over, we asked them to come and assist with the painting, before the paint was actually deteriorating. We bought the paint and we had the students from BES come, we also invited some members of Rotary, we also invited some members of my law firm to come and assist to do the painting. We also invited the Ministry of Blue Economy, they sent some individuals to assist as well. And with all that assistance we were able to paint it over a rejuvenate the sign."
And Perera explained that he sees the monument as a representation of the patriotism and resilience of Belizeans.
Estevan Perera, Donor, Belize Sign
"I think It's an important sign, I think it's one of the most popular sign in the city, it's #2 best destination on Trip Advisor, I think it's important, I think everyone who looks at it or who visits the sign feels a sense of appreciation because it brings to light the fact that we are Belizeans and it gives us a focal point that we can display that patriotism."
"I think it's a sign of resilience for Belize, I think we did very well in terms of getting back up and running within a number of days, as you could see most countries took some time to get back to those level of operations after a storm but I think in Belize we did quite well and so this is our sign of showing that Belize is resilient and that slowly with the efforts of all the community members and person assisting others in Belize that we can get back to normal."
And with a couple of fresh coats of paint, the sign is ready for any photo ops from camera-toting tourists and Belizeans.
